Rochester Primary not giving up fight for crossing

“I work in the mornings, so it's up to my eldest son, Trey, to get his two sisters off to school each morning.

“Without the crossing, I would never feel like my children were safely getting to school — plus, it's a lot of pressure on a young kid to get his sisters to school.”

At its ordinary meeting in May, council made the decision to remove one of the school's two crossings after the Department of Transport refused to fund the $16 752 needed to keep it running.

But to school principal Graeme Hodgens, the issue needs to be about more than just money.

“As a principal, my first priority is the children's safety and without this crossing I feel as though I can't fulfil that,” he said.

“I would like to sit down together and discuss an alternative to this decision. Whether it be keeping the infrastructure without the crossing guard so there is at least some protection on that road.”

State Member for Murray Plains Peter Walsh said he was 100 per cent behind the school, Mr Hodgens and the school council in their fight to ensure the crossing infrastructure stayed in place.

Mr Walsh said the commitment of the teachers to put their hands up and cover the supervision gap for the benefit of the children was the ideal example of a community effort in a small country town.

“It is important the area stay in place to give the school a fair chance to man the crossing if that’s what it takes to make the scene as safe as possible for students and their families,” he said.

“The fact the teachers have to work off site is another layer of red tape to be managed, but I can’t say enough for those who have said they will lend a hand.

“We are currently facing a similar showdown with a school crossing in Echuca, and regardless of the number of students at a school, it makes no sense to the Nationals to literally risk even one child’s life for the sake of what is, in the overall scheme of things, a not very significant sum.”

Mr Walsh said part of the process would be getting the volunteer teacher roster accreditation from Campaspe Shire to work as supervisors.

“You can’t imagine getting them assessed and processed will be any great delay and we are hoping by the start of the next school term enough of them will be good to go,” Mr Walsh added.

In 2019-20, the Department of Transport received applications for 15 school crossing supervisors from Campaspe Shire Council for funding under the School Crossing Supervisors Program.

The department delivered around $90 000.

If the campaign to save the crossing was successful, the department would allocate $6785, leaving council to come up with $9967 for the crossing.

After two crossings did not receive the allocation, council said it had to make the decision to close the Rochester crossing.

“The council’s decision on the school crossing was consistent with its agreed level of service (policy/practice), that budget allocations are to only provide for school crossings that are funded through the state’s School Crossing Scheme,” Campaspe Shire chief executive Declan Moore said.

Mr Moore did say the council would speak with numerous groups if the opportunity arose.

“The form and function of crossings must be within VicRoads specification, but council is available to participate in any discussions involving representatives from the school community, VicPol, VicRoads and the Education Department about local road safety issues,” he said.

The school community set up a petition, which gained more than 1200 signatures, and sent it to the council.

“We don't expect the council to accept the petition, but we would like them to know we want answers.”